Betraying Thomas Jefferson

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/21468

Betraying Thomas Jefferson
Submitted by dlindorff on Wed, 2007-04-18 21:20. Impeachment

By Dave Lindorff

The enemies of the Constitution are growing in number and are to be found now, not just in the White House and the Congress, but also in state capitals, from Washington to Vermont.

Not only do we have a president and vice president who are almost daily undermining and rending at the fabric of the Constitution. Not only do we have Democratic Party leaders actively barring the party’s elected representatives from standing up to the president by submitting bills of impeachment, as called for in the Constitution.

We now have Democratic Party leaders in state legislatures betraying Founder Thomas Jefferson, by sabotaging grassroots efforts to get joint legislative resolutions passed demanding the start of impeachment proceedings in the House.

Thomas Jefferson, a complex and personally deeply conflicted human being was, as a philosopher of government, incredibly prescient. Not only did he foresee the critical need for a section laying out the inalienable rights of man in the nation’s founding document. He also understood the concept of a “beltway bubble” long before there were even paved roads, much less interstate highway beltways.

Jefferson understood that a monomaniacal and unprincipled president, particularly in time of war or national crisis, could intimidate members of Congress—particularly a weak Congress riven by political rivalries—and prevent that body from going forward with impeachment. He understood that members of Congress themselves, remote geographically and politically from their constituents, could eventually become so isolated they would fail to act in accordance with the wishes of the voters who sent them to Washington. That’s why Jefferson came up with an alternative way of initiating impeachment proceedings, in addition to the standard Constitutionally-prescribed method of having a House member submit an impeachment bill. His solution, laid out in his Manual of the Rules of the House, was to allow a joint resolution by any state’s legislature calling for impeachment to also require the House to initiate impeachment.

Over the past year, there have been grassroots campaigns underway in at least 10 states to get such resolutions passed.

Unfortunately, the Democratic leaders of a number of state legislatures, working in collusion with, or at the direction of even more craven Democratic Party leaders in Washington, are undermining Jefferson, and are sabotaging his carefully crafted mechanism for defending and protecting the Constitution and ensuring the survival of democratic freedoms.

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[Kurovski]

1. K&R.

Impeach, indict, imprison.

[bobbie]

2. K&R

Great column.

[tom_paine]

3. Investigate. Indict. Impeach. Imprison.

[Vidar]

4. Thanks for another wonderful article, babylonsister. Recommended.

[nealmhughes]

5. I think I shall search my bookshelves for my "Portable Jefferson Reader"

which includes a long letter in which he refutes any Xian ties to the organization of the US or any standing under Common Law of the Ten Commandments or any other "holy writ."

That "howling atheist" and his razor amidst the pages of the Bible!

Jefferson, Madison, et al. placed the power of impeachment in the hands of the House for a reason: the body closest to the People. Evidently TJ planned on it being used quite a bit more frequently than it has been since adoption of the USC.